Running the census
To begin you will need to set up a Census folder on your desktop.
We have created a helpsheet called Setting the Census Folder Location. This can be found here
Please read through the helpsheet carefully to ensure you have correctly set up and will be able to
find your Census Folder.
If this is the first time you are going into this census, click New.
If you have been working on this census already, click Search to bring up the any previously
generated census files, then double click on the name to go into it.
If this is the first time you have created this census file, you will need to click Calculate All Details
Click Yes to the message that comes up
The Census Details panel displays the following read-only information:
Census Date – 02/10/2014
Attendance data collected from 21/04/2014 to 31/07/2014
Exclusions data collected from 01/01/2014 to 20/04/2014
FSM (Free School Meal) data collected from 16/05/2014 to 02/10/2014.
By default, the return Description is displayed as School Census Autumn 2014. This description
can be edited, if required, e.g. to identify a dry run.
You should now be in a position to start checking the data in the census.
1. Census Details.
These details cannot be changed; they are there for your reference. They show you things like the
attendance collection dates.
2. School Information
This should be correct already. Minor changes can be made by clicking the School Details
button.
If your school has become an academy and Sims does not yet reflect this, please call ICT Shared
Services on 0845 3033003.
3. Hours for Early Years
Applicable to schools with 2, 3 or 4 year old pupils
Hours at Setting and Funded Hours are collected from all schools that have pupils aged 2, 3
and 4 on-roll on census day. The hours collected in this return are for the week in which the
census day falls.
Hours at Setting reflects the number of hours that the child attends the setting during census
week.
Data is collected about pupils whose date of birth falls in the date range 01/09/2009 to
31/08/2012 inclusive.
Age Range for
Summer Census
Date of Birth
Range
Maximum
Entitlement to
Funded Hours
two and three
01/09/2010 and
31/08/2012
inclusive
15 hours
four
01/09/2009 and
31/08/2010
inclusive
25 hours
If Hours at Setting and/or Funded Hours have been recorded previously via Tools | Statutory
Return Tools | Update Hour for Early Years, the values are displayed in the Hours for
Early Years panel.
Click the Edit button to display the Update Hours
To add or edit the number of Hours at Setting (or Funded Hours) select the required criteria
from the options in the Pupils panel.
To update all the hours together, right click on Funded Hours column header and choose:
Select All
Type in the correct funded hours for the pupils
Repeat the process for Hours at Setting.
Funded hours represents how many hours are paid for the by the LEA,
Hours at Setting represents how many hours the pupil is actually at school.
Click Save and OK bottom of screen
4. Class Type
Class type needs to be recorded for all students.
Nursery pupils are recorded as being in Nursery; all other pupils are recorded as Other.
You can update the class types by clicking Edit
When updating the class type, you may find it easier to put everyone into Other and then just
move across the Nursery Pupils. To do this, right click in the Other column and click Check All
Click Save and OK bottom of screen
5. Top-up Funding
DfE has provided the following notes on the Top-Up Funding Indicator
1. A true/false flag is being introduced to indicate those pupils on roll on Census Day for
whom a school receives top-up funding from the local authority, or in the case of a PRU
the top-up funding could be from a local authority or a school.
2. This data item will be collected termly and applies to all pupils in all phases/types of
school within the scope of the School Census.
3. Top-up funding is supplied by local authorities from their high needs budget directly. In
the case of PRUs the top-up funding will come from a local authority’s high needs
budget directly or through schools.
If you have any questions regarding your schools Top-up funding , please consult your
Finance Officer.
Pupils will be shown if you have previously added in Tools>statutory return tools > Top-up Funding
Select Edit
You can use a general search to bring up a full list of your pupils to select from or use the filters.
(SEN Statement maybe the most useful filter)
Once found highlight pupil and select ADD
Click Update and OK bottom of screen
6. Adopted from Care
DfE has provided the following notes on Adopted from Care
1. This data item will identify those children on roll on census day who were looked after
immediately before adoption, being placed on a special guardianship or residence order.
2. It will be up to those who have parental responsibility (adoptive parents, special
guardians and carers of former looked after children on residence orders) to decide if they
wish schools to know whether such children have been adopted, or are under a special
guardianship order or a residence order. This data item will be collected termly and applied
to all pupils in all phases/types of school within the scope of the School Census.
Pupils will be shown if you have previously added in Tools>statutory return tools > Adopted from
Care
Select Edit
You can use a general search to bring up a full list of your pupils to select from or use the filters
(Ever in Care maybe the most useful filter)
Once found highlight pupil and select ADD
Select the relevant category from the drop down in Adopted from Care field
Once complete select Save
7. School Dinner Taken
School dinner taken by pupils on census day is being collected in the School Census Autumn
2014 Return for the first time. The collection is restricted to Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 (and
those aged four to six not taught in a National Curriculum Year in Special schools).
The new panel (School Dinner Taken) enables you to record pupils who have taken a universal
infant free school dinner on census day. A new report (School Dinner Taken) provides basic
information about all on-roll pupils who have taken a school dinner on census day and who match
the following criteria:
Pupils in Year Taught In Reception, Year 1 or Year 2
Pupils aged four to six on 31/8/2014 who are not following the national curriculum and who were
born between 01/09/2007 and 31/08/2010 (Special schools only).
By default, the Reference Date is set to 02/10/2014 (census day). If, due to exceptional
circumstance, e.g. flooding, pupils were unable to take a school dinner on census day, the
reference date can be changed to a date that reflects the normal situation.
If SIMS Dinner Money is in use, the Dinner Money data recorded for census day can be used to
calculate the number of school dinners taken on census day.
Many users of SIMS Dinner Money also use SIMS Attendance. If this is the case the Calculate
From Attendance button is also displayed. However, it is recommended that the Calculate From
Dinner Money routine is used in the first instance. This is because the Calculate From Attendance
routine looks at all pupils with a present or late attendance mark on census day morning. These
pupils could be taking any sort of meal on census day, e.g. going home for lunch, pack lunch
brought from home, as well as meals provided by the school. The School Census Autumn 2014
Return is only interested in school meals provided by the school.
SIMS Dinner Money takes into account these different meal types and populates the School
Dinner Taken column with ticks where meals provided by the school only have been taken.
8. Attendance
Termly attendance data (including attendance codes and the number of sessions missed)
should be provided for non-boarder pupils and leavers aged four to 15 inclusive on
31/08/2013, who were on-roll for at least one session during the collection period 21/04/2014
to 31/07/2014 inclusive.
Please check section 1 to see the Attendance collection period. Attendance is usually collected for
the previous term, exclusions from the term before that. Any missing marks will need to be
completed before the census can be sent.
Go to Focus > Attendance > Deal with missing marks. Change the from and to date to the
census attendance collection period.
Attendance data is generated when the census file is created and validated.
Validating the Census
Once all sections have been completed, click Create & Validate
The validation process will start. The process should run through in a couple of minutes, if it takes
longer than five minutes please email ICT Shared Services at ict@norfolk.gov.uk.
You should now see the Validation Errors Summary.
Most errors are hyperlinked to the section in Sims containing the error.
All type F errors need to be resolved before submitting
Type Q errors represent queries that need to be checked, but can be submitted if you agree with
the statement.
A list of error codes and how to fix them can be found on our website.
Once you have fixed an error, hit Create & Validate to check that it has gone. You can run
Create & Validate as many times as you like.
Detailed Reports
Not all information being collected in the census is taken from the Census screen. Lots of
information is taken straight from the pupil’s records. To check this data you need to run the
Detailed Reports, and then the Summary.
There are twelve Detailed Reports to run. Click on Multiple Reports to generate them all in one
go.
The Summary report is a summary of all the data within the census. This should be shown to the
Head teacher before the census is authorised and sent.
Authorising and Sending the Census
Once the census has been completed and all errors and queries are dealt with, you will need to
authorise the census before sending it to the Local Authority (LA).
Click on the Authorise button at the top of the census screen. This may take some time, and you
may see many screens open, as it generates reports.
By clicking Authorise and accepting the next authorisation screen you have created an XML file
that can be sent via AnyComms +
The XML file can be found in the folder that you specified when first running the census.
This is typically found on your desktop
The XML file is the actual census return. The file name will be 926dddd_SC1_926LL13_nnn.XML,
where dddd is your DfE number and nnn is a number from 001 to 999. If there is more than one
such file, please choose the file with the highest nnn.
From Autumn 2014 the method of submission of the School & Pupil Census has changed.
Schools must no longer send their files to the Local Authority via Anycomms or s2s.
Instead, schools are asked to upload their xml file directly to the Collect website.
Schools will need to upload their census file, resolve all outstanding errors and queries, and then
submit their return within Collect to hand over the return to the Local Authority.
Any queries that are generated in Collect must be investigated by the school and the data
amended as necessary, either by editing the data items within Collect or by amending the data at
source within their MI system and uploading a new census file. If specific queries cannot be
resolved and have a valid reason, then schools may note this on Collect - for example a pupil
being taught out of year group for their age. If this is correct the school should put a note against
this query which must be worded as per the DfE guidance. Schools will also need to record
explanations for validation queries relating to changes from previous returns, such as significant
increases in SEN or a reduction in the number of pupils on roll.
Help using the Collect portal is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schoolcensus-2014-to-2015-collect-guide-for-maintained-schools
The guidance:
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explains how Collect can be accessed
provides details of the Collect functionality for a data collection ‘blade’ using screen shots
and examples to demonstrate the functionality
explains how to upload, cleanse and submit your census data
provides details on the reporting facilities and reports available
Specific guidance regarding editing census data in Collect can also be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-census-2014-to-2015-editing-data-in-collect
Collect is accessed via Secure Access, the DfE single sign on system. If you require assistance
with Secure Access, Local Authority teams will unfortunately be unable to assist as the system is
maintained by the Department for Education (DfE). This system should be familiar as it is the
same system used to access Key to Success and School to School (s2s).
Guidance is available on the login page at: https://sa.education.gov.uk/idp/Authn/UserPassword.
The approver within your school will be able to resolve any access issues (speak to your
Headteacher who should be able to advise who has the approver role within your school). If you
are an approver and require assistance, you will need to contact the DfE using a Secure Access
Service Request Form available at:
https://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/datatdatam/secureaccess/service-requestform.